IRAN: DRUMS OF WAR BEATING LOUDER: U.S. Mounts Further Military Build-Up in Persian Gulf

IRAN: DRUMS OF WAR BEATING LOUDER: U.S. Mounts Further Military Build-Up in Persian Gulf

by Ben Schreiner

With the drums of war beating ever louder against Iran, the U.S. military has quickly moved to reestablish a war footing in the Persian Gulf. The preparations for a looming military confrontation thus continue apace.

According to the Washington Post (1/27), “The Pentagon is rushing to send a large floating base for commando teams to the Middle East.” As the paper reports, the USS Ponce, a 40-year old amphibious transport dock previously set for decommission, will now be converted into a special ops hub, and then likely sent to the Persian Gulf.

The Pentagon, the Post reports, is seeking to retrofit the USS Ponce on an accelerated timeline. In fact, the military has gone ahead and waived “normal procurement rules because any delay presented a ‘national security risk.’”

At the same time, the Wall Street Journal reports (1/28) the Pentagon has notified Congress that it will divert an additional $82 million to refine the Massive Ordinance Penetrator (MOP). (The MOP is a 30,000-pound “bunker-buster” bomb “specifically designed to take out the hardened fortifications built by Iran and North Korea to cloak their nuclear programs.”)

The decision to seek an upgrade in the MOP reportedly comes after a series of tests revealed that the ordinance remains incapable of destroying certain Iranian nuclear facilities, such as the enrichment site at Fordow, located near the holy city of Qom. (Fordow is buried deep within the mountainside, below 260 feet of rock and soil).

The Journal also reports that, “The decision to ask now for more money to develop the weapon was directly related to efforts by the U.S. military’s Central Command to prepare military options against Iran as quickly as possible.” And thus much the same as with the retrofitting of the USS Ponce, the Pentagon has decided to sidestep the normal budgetary request process in seeking additional funds for the MOP. As Journal notes, “The Pentagon deems the MOP upgrades to be a matter of some urgency.”

Meanwhile, it was also reported Friday that the joint Israel-U.S. war games—deemed Austere Challenge 12—have been rescheduled for October 2012. The games were originally scheduled for spring, but were postponed on January 15 for reasons that were unclear. But with Austere Challenge 12 now set to take place in October, U.S. military officers are scheduled to begin arriving in Israel this coming week in preparation for the largest joint operation ever conducted between the two armed forces.

These latest military maneuvers come on the heels of an announced U.S. troop build-up in the region revealed earlier this month. As the Los Angeles Times first reported (1/12), the build-up, including the stationing of 15,000 U.S. troops in Kuwait, is “intended as a quick-reaction and contingency force in case a military crisis erupts in the standoff with Tehran over its suspected nuclear weapons program.”

Yet despite the ongoing military preparations, the power elites in both Washington and Tel Aviv remain divided as to whether to go ahead with a strike against Iran. As Jim Lobe noted, this growing debate has actually led to “a number of influential members of the [U.S.] foreign policy establishment – including several prominent liberal interventionists who had supported the Iraq war – to warn against any further escalation either by the US or Israel.”

This rhetorical drawback by certain segments within the power structure has also been seen in Israel. On January 18, for example, Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak refused to speculate on whether Israel would unilaterally strike Iran, while also going on to state that Israel was “very far off” from even making such a decision.

Barak, however, already seems to have changed course. Speaking at the World Economic Forum in Davos on Friday, the Israeli defense minister argued that the world must act quickly to stop Iran from reaching the point at which time a strike becomes ineffective. As he stated, “It seems to us to be urgent, because the Iranians are deliberately drifting into what we call an immunity zone where practically no surgical operation could block them.” Very far off appears to be rapidly approaching.

Indeed, writing in the latest New York Times Magazine (1/25), Ronen Bergman argues that Israel remains poised to strike Iran. As Bergman concludes his piece: “After speaking with many senior Israeli leaders and chiefs of military and the intelligence, I have come to believe that Israel will indeed strike Iran in 2012.” Of course, an Israeli strike would quickly ensnare the U.S., along with many others, in a regional, if not global, conflict.

Yet, even as all signs continue to point towards an impending war, a glimmer of hope has perhaps also begun to emerge. Organized popular resistance to yet another imperial conquest is now finally visible within the U.S. As was announced earlier this month, a “broad spectrum of U.S.-based anti-imperialist and anti-war organizations,” including many Occupy movements, have called for a coordinated nationwide protests on February 4 to resist the drive to war with Iran. The protesters will demand: “No war, no sanctions, no intervention, no assassinations against Iran.”

And with the power elite in both Israel and the U.S. still debating and divided over when to launch a strike against Iran, and with the Occupy movement already active in cities across the country, a window of opportunity exists (however brief) for a powerful working class-led push back to gain traction nationally against the further expansion of U.S. militarism into Iran. In fact, the only assured hope for warding off war–establishment doves, after all, rarely prevail against their hawkish counterparts–will be for the U.S. working class to demonstrate its opposition to imperialism by taking to the streets in protest. In the end, such resistance offers the only real hope for a peaceful resolution to the present crisis.

Ben Schreiner is a freelance writer living in Salem, Oregon. He may be reached at bnschreiner@gmail.com

Indeed, writing in the latest New York Times Magazine (1/25), Ronen Bergman argues that Israel remains poised to strike Iran. As Bergman concludes his piece: “After speaking with many senior Israeli leaders and chiefs of military and the intelligence, I have come to believe that Israel will indeed strike Iran in 2012.” Of course, an Israeli strike would quickly ensnare the U.S., along with many others, in a regional, if not global, conflict.

4 responses to “IRAN: DRUMS OF WAR BEATING LOUDER: U.S. Mounts Further Military Build-Up in Persian Gulf”

Never before have Satan’s little helpers been closer to fulfilling the century old Zioscum dream of a ‘Greater Israel’ from the Euphrates to the Nile

While millions of Egyptians are protesting for an immediate removal of Mubarak, Western politicians are pressuring the Egyptian government to refrain from the use of force, respect ‘freedom of the press’ and ‘listen to the people’. At the same time, Israeli politicians keep handing out Judas kisses by reminding everyone interested of what a great friend and ally (!) Mubarak has been for the past 30 years and how terrible, terrible a regime change would be for the Jews-only state. Who needs more evidence that what is currently going on in Tunisia, Yemen and Egypt is being orchestrated by nobody else but the Anglo-Judean Axis of Greed?

It’s not like Israeli politicians are so stupid not to realise that their praise for Mubarak is not exactly making it easier for him to cling on to power. Nor are Western politicians so stupid not to know that their criticism of Mubarak’s desperate attempts to save his rule will only serve to encourage demonstrators and political opposition. No, both Israeli and Westerns politicians are doing everything in their power to ensure a victory of the Muslim Brotherhood.

The fall of Egypt is likely to trigger similar developments throughout the Middle-East, including Saudi-Arabia and Turkey. Israhell – slavishly supported by Western governments – will ‘secure’ strategic assets such as oil fields, pipelines and the Suez Canal, resulting in an all out Middle-East war, in which the Zionist hellhole – ‘desperately fighting for its survival’ – will wipe strategic rival Iran off the map and annex large chunks of territory of its neighboring countries. Never before have Satan’s little helpers been closer to fulfilling the century old Zioscum dream of a ‘Greater Israel’ from the Euphrates to the Nile.

Source article can be found here.

P.S. The good thing in all this display of protesting is that it is becoming apparent what a burden Israel is on the world and what 9/11 and the so-called “war on terror” has been about all along. What self-deceiving argument will two-state jewish altruists and fellow traveling sycophants come up with once the dream of Eretz Isreal is fulfilled? Will it be now that jews are secure there can finally be justice? Will jews ever feel secure?
at 2/04/2011
1 comments:
Perry L said…
Spot ON!!! Maybe if we can expose the game before it fully plays out it can be stopped…maybe.

I wrote a similar article about it A Look in the Mirror | What purpose thou Revolution?

With harsh US rhetoric and tensions around Iran’s nuclear program snowballing by the hour, American polls nonetheless show that most Americans think a war with Tehran would be a grave mistake. But do the leaders care?
­Despite Iran’s recent consent to return to negotiations over its atomic work, the Obama administration says war with Tehran is still on the table. Even harsher statements come from some of Washington’s hawks like Newt Gingrich, who spoke of breaking the Iranian regime within a year.

The calls however appear to find little support with the ordinary people. Online and telephone surveys by one of the country’s online companion polls show the majority of Americans do not back the government’s talk of war against Iran.

The residents of one American city went even further and took the matter to their City Council. The legislative body of Charlottesville in Virginia passed a resolution, believed to be a first in the country, opposing the launching of a war on Iran, as well as calling for an end to current ground and drone wars engaged in by the US.

“The popular will has always been against wars, unless pushed and dragged by a very manipulative propaganda,” David Swanson, co-author of the resolution told RT. “And they have been trying – those who want war on Iran – have been trying unsuccessfully for years to get the American people onboard”.

RT’s Gayane Chichakyan went out on the streets of Washington to see how many people she met who want the US to attack Iran.

The result was – just one, out of more than a dozen.

And it’s not just ordinary US people, but many experts in the security field, who warn against starting a war with Iran. One of these is a former acting director of the CIA.

“People keep saying that the military option is still on the table. I think it would be a very bad option… One of the big problems with Iran is that if you get into an open confrontation, a military confrontation, you risk a cycle of retaliation and response with great difficulty seeing where the end point is,” John E. McLaughlin says.

A natural question here is, how can Washington continue talking war, with so many Americans against it?

“I have a hard time thinking of any example of any issue on which the conduct of our government in Washington corresponds with majority opinion. War is not some kind of exception. The public is against bailouts for bankers, the public is against subsidies for energy companies, the public is against wars, the public is against just about every decision made on important issues in Washington,” David Swanson laments to RT.

But does the government care?

Many sense that the rift between what Americans want, and what the leaders do in the name of the American people, is not narrowing.

The final Jewish takeover of America is now indelibly imprinted on the blueprint of our nation’s future.

Prepare for food shortages, power outages, blackouts and communication curtailments — and of course — the collapse of the dollar coupled with the lawlessness now operative in America as demonstrated in the MF Global theft of segregated accounts.

CHECKING ACCOUNTS will be next. GET OUT of dollar denominated assets as FAST AS YOU CAN! And yes, dear fellow warriors for truth, you have been warned.